Cisco's Crazy Acquisition Binge: Top 10 Acquisitions Of The Last Decade (CSCO)

Matt Rosoff, provided by

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Cisco is one of the most acquisitive companies in tech.

Over the last 20 years, Cisco has bought more than 140 companies. In the 1990s, most of these purchases were in Cisco's traditional business: networking, routing, and switching.

But in the last decade, the company began to branch out into "adjacent" areas like consumer video, cable TV set top boxes, and business collaboration.

Now, as the company has reported two disappointing quarters in a row, CEO John Chambers may be pulling back on some of these businesses. Yesterday, the company announced it was canceling some consumer products, including the Flip cam, which it gained as part of its $590 acquisition of Pure Networks only two years ago.

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A trip through Cisco's ten biggest acquisitions of the last decade suggests the Flip may not be the only victim when the refocusing is done.

#10: Airespace, wireless network switching, $450 million.

Cisco bought this company for $450 million in stock in January 2005. It made products that helped businesses set up secure wireless networks, and fit into Cisco's core networking and switching business. It also hurt competitors like Nortel and Alcatel, who previously had deals with the company.

#9: Linksys, home networking, $500 million.

This 2003 buy marked the beginning of Cisco's foray into the consumer market. Linksys is still the leading maker of home networking gear.

#8: Pure Digital, consumer video cameras (Flip), $590 million

Cisco shut down the Flip product line yesterday. This acquisition was way outside Cisco's traditional core, but the idea was to encourage consumers to upload lots of video to the Internet, which would eventually require service providers and Web companies to upgrade their infrastructure.